Kristy and the Horrible BreakUp
by The Last Good Name Left
Summary: Sam and Stacey break up, and Kristy is distraught. Why? And what will she do to get them back together? SamStacey, KristyStacey, and Mary AnneDawn.


Just before my brother Sam left for college, he let it slip that Stacey McGill had dumped him in the parking lot at Jack's, because, as he said, "I'm going to be a college man. I can't have a high school girlfriend, even if I'm in love with her."

I said, "You were good enough to take her to the Senior Prom, and i get a room at the Goodwin for Prom Night /i ."

Sam glared at me, and then Mom said, "The what?"

Ooops.

Not only was I not supposed to know about Sam and Stacey and the Goodwin Hotel, I definitely wasn't supposed to tell anyone.

Sam spent the last two weeks before going off to UConn grounded for that stunt -- because Mom obviously wants us all to stay virgins for the rest of our lives, or have sex in the back seat of the Junk Bucket -- and I spent as much time as I could out of the house, because Sam was ready to kill me.

Most of the time I hung out with Abby or Shannon, but the Thursday before the first day of Junior year, Mary Anne and I went to the mall to pick up a few last minute back-to-school items. Mary Anne thought that meant more clothes, since Mr Spier had finally decided that almost-17 was old enough to choose all your own clothes, which was good since Mary Anne had been paying for her own wardrobe since 8th grade.

I thought it meant a new pair of workout shoes -- those count as clothes, right? -- and a replacement chain for my road bike, which had broken the first week of summer vacation. I had totally forgotten about it, and had just ridden my mountain bike for the summer, but I was going to need that bike for school; riding was a good workout, and cut down on my gym time. I like weights, but doing endurance training inside is just plain boring and Coach makes us do varied workouts, even off-season.

"So, are we going to grab some breakfast at Jack's?" Mary Anne asked when she picked me up.

I glared at her, and she jumped back.

"I'm sorry," I said. "I'm just still really mad at Stacey." I had told Mary Anne about Sam getting grounded; she thought that part was funny. She wasn't as mad as I was about the rest of it, though.

"Why?" she asked.

"Because it's mean! They've been dating since forever, and she just dumped him."

Mary Anne looked at me. "When was the last time you even talked to Stacey?"

"She was over for dinner a couple of weeks ago."

"And?" Mary Anne said.

I looked away. "And I was over at Grace's." Grace was our star pitcher, even if she was only a sophomore. I had been playing left field the first two years of high school, but our starting catcher had graduated, and even though there was a senior slotted ahead of me, I was pretty sure if I learned how to catch Grace, I'd be a shoo-in for starter.

"How's that going?" Mary Anne asked. It sounded like the kind of questions she used to ask Logan: she didn't really care, but she wanted to know about the things I was interested in.

That made me remember I hadn't asked her about Logan's replacement yet. "How's Dawn?"

Mary Anne blushed. I grinned and wiggled my eyebrows. She blushed harder.

"Grace is getting really good with her change-up," I said instead of turning Mary Anne into a fire-truck. "I think we're going to be really good this year. Between Grace and the lineup, look out CIAC."

Mary Anne drove right past Jack's, and we ended up going to Cafe Florentine, which was the kind of place that adults went -- lots of fancy coffee and pastries. It was good, but it wasn't Jack's. It was just one more thing to be pissed with Stacey about: I love Jack's.

Mary Anne insisted stopping in half a dozen stores before she let me hit the sports shop, and the bike shop was at the other end of the mall. I spent most of the time standing around playing boyfriend -- "go find one just like this, but in green, and one size smaller," or, "here, hold this," -- but it was okay, because at least Mary Anne knows what she likes, so it went pretty fast.

I made up for it by trying on seven different pairs of shoes, and making Mary Anne wait. She spent the time trying out golf clubs, just to irritate me. Watson tried to teach Sam and me how to play golf, but I guess we goofed around too much for him, because the next time he went out, he took Mary Anne and Charlie. They behaved themselves, and kept getting invited back. It was too bad, because the clubhouse was a lot of fun.

When I was done picking my shoes, Mary Anne said, "I'm dying of hunger here, Kristy. No one needs to spend so much time on a pair of running shoes."

"Cross-trainers," I said. "And maybe you shouldn't have tried on those last twelve million pairs of identical jeans."

"You wouldn't tell me which ones were cuter," Mary Anne complained.

"You aren't supposed to be trying to look cute anymore. You're supposed to be trying to look i sexy /i ."

"I'll look sexy when I'm good and ready," she said. I'm glad that neither of us is the type to feel bad out how inexperienced we are. We've got a lot of time for that; right now, we're in high school.

Of course, then she said, "You're the one who freaked out about Stacey and Sam having sex."

"I did not freak out!" I said.

Mary Anne didn't look convinced.

"I didn't." I was probably pouting, but I wasn't freaked out about Sam and Stacey. It was just wrong that she had dumped him. It wasn't fair, and I thought my brother deserved better than to be treated like that. Charlie probably didn't have things like that happen to him, although he was also away at college, and nobody knew what he was getting up to.

Mary Anne just shook her head at me, like she was a wise old woman and I was a stupid little kid.

"What about you?" I demanded.

Mary Anne shook her head again, this time vigorously. It looked like she was going to give herself whiplash.

I nodded. "You guys haven't?"

She shook her head again, slower.

"She was here all summer!" I said. "You mean you didn't even do it?"

"Kristy!" Mary Anne said.

"Hey, I'm single, I have to get my kicks vicariously."

"I thought that's what Abby was for," Mary Anne groused.

I looked at Mary Anne with my most pathetic expression. "Mary Anne, you're still my best friend. Just because Abby kisses and tells doesn't mean I don't want to hear about you," I said as sincerely as I could manage. I don't think she believed me.

"Even if we had," Mary Anne said, "I wouldn't tell you. It's supposed to be special -- i and private /i ."

"Yeah, After-School Special: you guys are step-sisters. They make movies about that."

Mary Anne just looked depressed. Dawn's friend Sunny and I were the only ones who knew about Mary Anne and Dawn; they couldn't tell anyone else. Of course, I couldn't figure out how no one noticed: I mean, yeah, they were close friends, but they were a little i too /i close. Sixteen-year-old step-sisters don't usually sleep in each other's beds when they've got rooms right next door to each other.

"I was just teasing, Mary Anne," I said, already planning on buying Mary Anne the biggest sundae she could eat to make her feel better. "We're going away to college soon, and you'll get to room together, and it'll be great."

Mary Anne wasn't paying attention to me; she was staring intently over my shoulder.

I turned around, and was about to ask what she was looking at when I spotted Claudia Kishi barreling down the concourse with about a thousand bags in her hands. She was trailed by a blonde carrying only slightly fewer bags.

"Is that?" I asked.

Mary Anne nodded, and then she grabbed my arm. "Don't go over there, Kristy. It's between Sam and Stacey, and you should stay out of it."

"I'm just going to go say hi," I said, and pushed through the crowds. I could hear Mary Anne behind me, talking about maintaining boundaries and letting things go. She'd been spending too much time with her therapist, I thought.

By the time we caught up to Claudia and Stacey, they had gone into a lingerie shop. I knew I wasn't going to buy anything, but I couldn't help looking; there was some nice stuff in there. Mary Anne was still trailing me, and still trying to talk me out of having a chat with Stacey. We wandered all around the store but couldn't find them.

"Do you think they left?" I asked.

"Yes," said Mary Anne emphatically.

"Hey Stace, I think the light blue works better, what do you think?" Claudia asked from behind us.

I spun around.

From inside the area marked, "Fitting," Stacey said, "Ooh, cute!"

I marched in.

Mary Anne called after me, "I'll just wait here."

I waved a hand at her, intent on finding Stacey and giving her a piece of my mind.

Claudia and Stacey were still talking about light blue and light green somethings, so I just followed Stacey's voice. There were only four changing rooms, so it wasn't that hard.

I stood in front of Stacey's door, and took a deep breath. Then I tried the door handle.

"Is that you, Claud? Hang on a minute," Stacey said.

I wasn't going to wait; this was too important. I knelt down and crawled under the door.

Maybe I should have waited.

Stacey was trying on a pair of red and white matching underwear, or rather, she wasn't trying them on yet. The panties were really cute, white with red ribbon and little hearts. I didn't get a chance to get a good look at the bra.

"Um," I said.

Stacey gasped.

I spun around and faced the wall, and then for good measure closed my eyes. "Sorry."

"What are you doing here?"

I could hear her getting dressed behind me, but I didn't open my eyes. It didn't matter: Stacey was gorgeous, and she was just standing there, inside my eyelids.

"Kristy, I asked you a question," she said.

I swallowed; I guess I forgot to answer her. What was I supposed to say? "You're really hot."

That was probably not what I was supposed to say.

There was silence from behind me.

"Sorry," I said again.

"Kristy, why are you here?"

"Sam told me you broke up with him at Jack's last week."

"Turn around," she said.

I did. She had gotten dressed, but she was still hot. And I could still see her wearing a lot less whenever I blinked. This wasn't good.

"Kristy," she said, and then bit her lip and turned away. I frowned; she sounded really sad.

"Sam dumped me, not the other way around," she said.

"Then why did he tell me something different?" I asked.

She shrugged.

I didn't know what to do, and then she started to cry.

I patted her shoulder awkwardly, wishing I had listened to Mary Anne for once in my life, and then Stacey threw herself into my arms. We almost fell over, but I managed to catch her and keep us both upright. By the time we were back on our feet, my shirt was already soaked from Stacey's tears.

I didn't know what to do, so I rubbed her back, and said, "It's okay." I've never been any good at comforting other people, except for Mary Anne and that's only because we've known each other forever, so it doesn't matter if I get it wrong. My mom always says I need to slow down and let people feel their pain, whatever that means.

Stacey was certainly feeling some pain; she was sobbing really loudly.

"It's okay," I said again.

Stacey nodded against my neck, but didn't stop crying.

"I guess he lied to me, then, huh?" I said.

Stacey nodded again.

"Idiot."

This time she pulled back to see my face. She wiped her eyes with one hand; the other hand was holding a fist full of my shirt. "What do you mean?" she asked.

"Well, why would he break up with--" I gestured at her. "You're perfect. You're smart, and hot--"

"You said that already," she said.

I blushed, but kept going. "And you're already taking college math. UConn isn't that far away. You could still--"

Stacey gave a small smile and leaned forward. I wasn't expecting her to kiss me, but once her lips were on mine, I never wanted it to end.

Stacey pulled back and tugged on my ponytail. "I think I was dating the wrong Thomas."

I grinned and kissed her back. This time, I almost fell down. Luckily, there was a wall behind me to catch us.

"Stace," Claudia called, "You okay?"

Stacey pulled back and her smile was so wide I wondered if I would fall in and drown. It didn't seem like a bad idea.

"I'm fine," Stacey said, and then whispered against my neck, "I'm absolutely fantastic."

I laughed. I guess I figured out why I was so upset about Sam and Stacey.


End file.
